On our way to Prague

Day's Summary
"We intended to drive to Prague as directly as possible on the autobahn but somehow took a wrong turn and ended up going through part of Munich before got onto the autobahn which we followed via Regensburg. We stopped at the Czech border to buy our toll vignette and then again a little later to see what Czech garage stops and coffee were like. It was a pretty uneventful drive to Prague, although there were lots of trucks on the road, and we got there at about 18h00. Getting to the island campsite proved to be a bit tricky and we ended up making a few detours that were entirely our own fault. When we got to the yacht club campsite it was closed, so we stopped in the parking area outside the gate, made supper in the camper and spent our first night in the Czech Republic in a no camper parking zone."

We left Starnberg at about 9h00 and decided to stop at Edeka and Lidl for some final shopping before getting onto the big road. Our navigation wasn’t so good and we somehow ended up going through Munich. We were not sure quite how we got through, but we did go past the Olympic stadium. I should have stopped to have a look (it is one of the world’s great tensile structures), but we were on it before we realised what it was and the driving was a bit tense. I do remember driving under massive cables and thinking the connections to the ground were a bit crude. We decided some big city driving was good practice for the next few days. Out of Munich we got onto the big road and decided to go via Regensburg following the Google lady's directions. The camper was quite easy to drive and went along quite nicely at about 100 km/h with plenty in reserve for overtaking trucks. There were plenty of them. We stopped at the Czech border to buy a toll token, which gets stuck on the windscreen and the code on it is read by freeway cameras. We also had to change money as the Czech’s use Krone and not Euros. A bit further on we went into a very local restaurant at a service station for coffee. It was all very civilised and the coffee was reasonably priced. Our waiter was a very friendly fellow who had body building friends who were soon headed to South Africa for a competition. He was obviously also into body building (and tattoos). The locals were enjoying very tasty looking meals and we were very tempted, but it was a bit early for lunch.
Then we got back on the road for Prague. The road quality was a bit worse than in Germany, sometimes with only two lanes, but it was a double carriage way the whole way and much better than in RSA. When we got to the outskirts of Prague, Marianne had to help with the navigation. It was around 18h00 and still peak time. We headed straight for the campsite on an island (Cisarska louka) we had seen on the app Park4Night. There were a lot of road works happening and this compounded the traffic problem.It was quite tense driving, but Google Girl was right on the spot taking us straight there on a fairly easy route. Somehow I missed the turnoff – it looked like a turn into a service station – and we had to do a big circle to get back, because of the one way streets. There was no opportunity for u-turns on the double carriage way road so we had to go past the tram station and dodge trams on the tracks to be able to get back to the little bridge to the island.
We found the first campsite, but it looked very full and the lady at reception was very abrupt and adamant that we had no chance of a site if we had not made a reservation. We were a bit shocked and decided to have a look at the rest of the island. To our surprise we found a another camping at a yacht club. It certainly did not look full, but the boom was closed and the reception too. We drove back to the first one, but the lady was not budging. We had not made a reservation, so we could not stay even if it there were a few empty sites. So it was back to the yacht club. Since the reception was closed, we had no choice but to stand outside the gate. I was worried as there was a very clear no camper parking sign. We made supper and while doing so, a police car stopped. We thought we were in trouble, but they ignored us and drove into the yacht club grounds. After supper another camper-van arrived so we decided things must be OK. There were a number of pleasure boats on the river, loaded with very noisy tourists. One especially made a helluva racket with booming music and the sounds of drunken tourists - a real party boat! This was a real booze cruise! The sun set at about 20h30 and we spent a quiet and uneventful first night in the camper with the almost eerie silhouette of the twin towers of the St Peter & Paul Church across the river. The open spires were like transparent lattice work. The whole Vysehrad citadel complex on the steep cliff across from our island was lit and it was a magic sight. Once the party boats had stopped sailing past, a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere descended upon the island and we settled down to our first night in the camper.

Geschreven door Leartravels